


the descent into the Maelström

by ryebread (Fuckmeupbuttercup)



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Real World, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Multi, Platonic Relationships, but arent we all, lots of weed folks, sapnap is a stoner lol, theyre camping btw!, this has definitely got some Gay Vibes if you get me, unless...
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 05:02:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29165397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fuckmeupbuttercup/pseuds/ryebread
Summary: they're sitting around the fire.dream stares at them and thinks that god, they're all down so bad.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound & Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 47





	the descent into the Maelström

**Author's Note:**

> u know the drill about being respectful. this was my real life, actual saturday night, but i made it gay(er) by giving off the illusion of possibility. irl i am not actually in love with the homies. i am cripplingly lonely.

they're sitting around the fire.

they're sitting around the fire, and dream and sapnap are on one side and george is on the other with his hood up.

it's probably around two in the morning. they're camping, actually, because george had been through a tough breakup and dream had proclaimed that "nature is healing" or some other bullshit he had made up.

he knew the shit in george's room reminded him too much of whoever had left him, so he rented a little trailer, hardly big enough for all three of them, and forced them on a little trip.

_ george had called them the night before, the group chat lighting up with "he left me because he loved me _ . _ " dream hadn't known what to say, what to do. sapnap was even worse with emotions than dream, so finally the latter had come forward with "it'll be okay. it hurts, i know, but it'll be okay." _

it was ironic. dream had broken hearts the same way whoever left george did: he fell too deep, and felt like a caged animal. he didn't  _ want  _ to be in love, to have that liability.

he regrets it now. he hopes george's boy comes back with a clearer mind than dream has ever had; maybe more sense, too. who the hell leaves someone because they love them too much, besides dream? who the hell has the audacity to leave  _ george _ ?

sapnap is smoking. it's not a blunt, exactly, but a little metal tube he found fascinating enough to ramble about. he had complained about the burns, but finished his rant with a positive "i can make weed brownies with the leftovers of this thing, dream, isn't that the shit?" 

dream stares at them and thinks that god, they're all down  _ so _ bad.

dream is lonely and grieving. he's lost a lot of people, and broken a lot of hearts without wanting or meaning to, and sitting staring into the fire until it bleaches his eyes makes the memories churn angrily in his mind. 

it reminded him quite a bit of the Maelström edgar allen poe had written about. 

he feels like a ship careening sideways, heading straight over the edge of the great rushing whirlpool.

sapnap is caught in the stress of college, waiting for the "go" from columbia university- they had deferred him, but he still insists he's hopeful. dream just thinks he's scared, privately, but wishes to god his friend gets in.

and george… well. george was -is- for all intents and purposes, in love with the boy who had severed their relationship. 

he was the first boy george had dated that dream had liked. maybe it was because the boy reminded him of himself. maybe that's why dream can't help but empathize with both sides of the breakup. he feels awful for feeling that way. he feels it anyway.

_ "With the wind that now drove us on, we were bound for the whirl of the Ström, and nothing could save us." _

dream glances over at sapnap again.

"do you wanna hit?" sapnap asks, raising an eyebrow at him. not condescending, but instead curious- excited, even. 

dream runs a tight ship. everything battened down, everything neatly shoved away. no sail wrongly open, and no life-rope out of place. he doesn't outwardly express any feelings that are  _ real _ , other than excitement and frustration. not if he can help it.

this, he infers, is where sapnap's excitement is coming from. last time dream had taken just two huge pulls from sapnap's old, shitty pen a couple months back, he had become a virtual cat- sleepy, content, and touchy as ever. he remembers distinctly curling up against sapnap's side, george rolling his eyes fondly while he texted-

this time, with this new little gadget, dream suspects that it might be a tad more potent.

he nods, anyways. the three of them had already been passing around shared beer bottles: george is nursing the newer one with a sort of reverence. his eyes are glazed over with melancholy rather than alcohol, though; george is a lightweight, but dream thus far has been strict about how much he was allowed to drink.

sapnap talks to him about how to use the little device, showing dream where to cover the holes, what not to touch (he bumps it anyways, leaving an ugly little burn on his pinky). 

he pulls. 

he adores the taste of good weed. indigo, wherever sapnap had gotten it, is suddenly the best thing the world has to offer. 

it takes him three more pulls to become near- completely submerged.

"oh, he's gone," sapnap chuckles, joy so potent dream can taste it. the fire pulses with an energy dream can touch. his body pulses with it; every movement makes his body blur. 

"so gone," george agrees, the first hint of amusement on his tongue of the night. he's even smiling.

"you're not sober  _ either _ ," dream giggles, trying so hard not to laugh. george faux-scowls at him, and dream loses it. sapnap, despite not being anywhere near zooted, tips over and follows suit. even george cackles.

and all the churning seems to stop. dream is floating. he feels like he is the ship suspended, sideways, hanging over the great abyss of thought and also, more pleasantly, nothing at all. 

_ "if you have never been at sea in a heavy gale, you can form no idea of the confusion of mind occasioned by the wind and spray together."  _

george pulls his knees up to his chest, mouth moving. dream faintly hears sapnap say something about "cosmic irony" and they both glance at dream. yeah, this is the part of the conversation that dream would spout some incredible advice that he somehow had.

now, all he can say is, 

"being sad doesn't need an explanation." 

_ "they blind, deafen, and strangle you, and you take away all power of action or reflection." _

"i wish you could follow your own advice," sapnap says to dream, in the absence of george's response. 

_ "but we were now, in a great measure-" _

"maybe." dream laughs again. it's kind of funny that he's a hypocrite, and that this situation feels just a little bit like karma.

_ "-rid of these annoyances- just as death-condemned felons in prisons are allowed petty indulgences-" _

"hey, there, shakespeare, you still here?" sapnap is talking to him, smiling softly. he's really pretty. 

across the fire, george's face glows. he's just as pretty as sapnap.

"edgar allen poe," dream corrects, looking into the fire like it's the Maelström.

"wanna try something?" sapnap asks wryly, ignoring his out of place response to sapnap's jab.

_ "-forbidden them while their doom is yet uncertain." _

"always," dream says, in the same tone that george says  _ "obviously"  _ when they're all teasing and someone states the obvious.

"inhale when i blow out," is all he says.

and then sapnap takes a drag, leans into dream's personal space ( _ his hands are resting atop mine, his face is so close, his lips are puckered-) _ and grabs his jaw.

he exhales, their lips just  _ barely _ touching. dream sucks in the smoke he can, with all the grace of a hawk taking off. he's panicking inside, faintly, but he can't do anything but smile and blink back tears from the (surprisingly nice) burn at the back of his throat.

sapnap smiles back, and george laughs from his place away from them.

"wow," he remarks. dream bursts out laughing again.

_ "i began to reflect how magnificent a thing it was to die in such a manner." _

the other two stare at the embers with their minds' gentle whispers occupying their headspace.

dream thinks absently that there is some possibility, maybe in an alternate world, that he could fall in love with them. maybe even in this one, maybe if love were like a faucet: if he could choose who to fall in love with, it would be them.

he suddenly has the pressing urge to tell this to them.

"guys," he says, too loud. the crackling of the fire amplifies and pulls back, in sync with his heart. he has melted into his chair.

"what's up, buddy?" sapnap asks. george's eyes find dream's.

"i think i could love you," he tries.  _ that's not right _ . 

"oh?" sapnap leans over curiously. "tell us more?"

george is smiling across the fire. dream thinks that they love him enough to tease him, to be endeared.

"if- if i could choose who i fell in love with- i think- i want to be in love with you. i choose you guys." he sounds like he's in a rush to get it out- maybe because he is. he's teeming with affection and they need to  _ know  _ that.

sapnap is smiling with something that spells out  _ secrets _ . george's eyes have tears in them, but he seems, for the most part, positively affected.  _ good. _

there's more talking. if dream could choose who he fell in love with, he wouldn't be hurting so bad. if emotions were faucets, he wouldn't miss the people who were relieved from the dirt under his feet and instead buried under it.

his loose tongue wants him to vocalize this. 

dream runs a tight ship. he says nothing, and his mind drifts away from the coil of pain stowed deep in his chest, locked away in the gallows.

an hour must pass. the fire is almost gone. the embers shift like the sea, and dream rides the waves with a calm and contentedness he has never felt. 

"what's on your mind, dream?"george whispers loud enough for him to hear. he sounds light- sapnap and george must've spoke about the issue that had brought them all out here. it's nice.

now, though, dream admits, "i really want to watch tangled, right now."

his friends laugh and laugh, and sapnap pours water on the dying embers and ushers him into the trailer. george puts tangled on his stupid laptop he insisted on bringing, and they fall asleep curled round each other.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> if you enjoyed, feel free to drop akudos and/or comment! if u want more of this or of anything in general, lmk because i have ap stats and not a care in the world to do anything for it.
> 
> the title and italicized quotes are from 'a descent into the maelstrom' by edgar allen poe- a great short story, i highly recommend!


End file.
